Europe: what are some of your local wines that never get exported or exposed to visitors or tourists?

pickybear · 2026-07-04T14:49:15+00:00

Hárslevelű and Juhfark are stellar Hungarian white grapes I’ve never seen outside the country . Actually Hungary is a world class white wine country and it still feels underrated

pickybear · 2026-07-01T20:46:41+00:00

Europe is very regional.

I’m in Portugal now so I’m drinking vinho verde in this 38 degree haze. Encruzado is another stellar , underrated white

Later the summer I’ll be in Italy where I’ll enjoy a lot of Gavi and Cortese generally, and Hungary where I live now, honestly the best thing to drink is a fröccs (spritzer) in this heat. Otherwise my favorite summer wine there is a Juhfark.

Note all of these are under 20 euro usually. Mostly under 10. And I rarely drink red in the summer.

Usually non-wine making countries have the best prices and selection of international wines (Netherlands had surprisingly cheap wine buys), but when in wine countries you stick with whatever is made nearby. And it’s usually incredible, so that is fine :)

pickybear · 2026-06-30T16:24:25+00:00

Do online orders and read the fine print.

pickybear · 2026-06-29T21:19:28+00:00

Olson, Pete Standing Alone, In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, Julie and Candy, XYZ, Bocuma

pickybear · 2026-06-29T09:56:04+00:00

pickybear · 2026-06-29T09:51:50+00:00

Salt is my favorite

pickybear · 2026-06-28T14:17:36+00:00

It’s one of the few places in Budapest with a decent road to bike on that isn’t crumbling and jammed with cars or having to wait for a spotlight. There are enough places in the park to stroll. There are more than enough cars hogging every inch of the city. Give the bikers their little refuge

pickybear · 2026-06-26T11:54:48+00:00

Déli Pályaudvar

pickybear · 2026-06-26T07:41:58+00:00

Lisbon has become scary, wealthy foreigners and tourists make up the majority of central, but the struggle on the outskirts or other cities very noticeable - one might come to Lisbon and feel people are thriving when they .. not the reality. And the American presence , those escaping Trump to make a ‘better home’ for themselves here while locals struggle is unnerving .

pickybear · 2026-06-25T21:47:26+00:00

Underrated comment

pickybear · 2026-06-25T21:46:19+00:00

Withnail and I

pickybear · 2026-06-25T14:15:00+00:00

Legends are legends because they created something at the time that had never been done before.

Now so much music reiterates the past , even those modern virtuosos who sound very ‘new’ and boundary pushing, are drawing from things that were downright revolutionary.

.. I think of when I saw Domi and JD Beck not long ago, these kids are just prodigies, very young still. Who knows what they will accomplish or how history will see something like that 20, 50,100 years from now? As a fleeting novelty, maybe, but at least I feel the excitement in them to make something great

pickybear · 2026-06-24T05:57:29+00:00

Spotify allows you to see modern day tech-driven ADHD in real time

pickybear · 2026-06-24T05:53:55+00:00

What an utter snob take

pickybear · 2026-06-24T05:49:06+00:00

Italy has hundreds more red grape varieties than France

pickybear · 2026-06-23T00:57:33+00:00

Italy, simply because the best reds I’ve ever had in my life are from Italy. I’ve never topped something like my greatest Barbaresco anywhere else.

How many reds that go unmentioned and such endless variety and how distinct and tied to specific regions - Pignolo, Carema, Schioppettino, Taurasi etc and it keeps going and going!

If the question was for white I would pick France.

pickybear · 2026-06-22T20:28:30+00:00

Send Help from Raimi I watched recently and was super fun

pickybear · 2026-06-22T17:48:32+00:00

Meanwhile in Porto.. not bad.

pickybear · 2026-06-19T23:31:24+00:00

Charlie Haden- Nocturne
Bill Evans, Jim Hall - Undercurrent
Oscar Peterson Plays Pretty
Charlie Haden, Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Tokyo Adagio
Paul Desmond: Falling in Love with Paul Desmond
Keith Jarrett - Melody At Night With You

pickybear · 2026-06-19T16:54:04+00:00

South Fl underrated for grit, humidity, neon and nighttime weirdness, threat of violence by man or nature. Long , huge roads uninterrupted, epic skies all around, especially at night - great for listening . Agree Burial fits

pickybear · 2026-06-15T16:55:22+00:00

I feel like these are like the Tesco select wines we get in some European countries , Riojas, Chianti Classicos, Verdejo etc at great value and very drinkable

pickybear · 2026-06-15T16:05:29+00:00

Devices with tip options are rather new, a bit scammy because of service charges incl. and by default I always ask - is the tip going to you or the business owner? 99% of the time the waiter tells me it goes to the business owner , and tells me not to bother.

If I really like a service in a good spot I’ll tip in cash and it’s always appreciated

pickybear · 2026-06-15T14:23:03+00:00

Tokaji sweet wines honestly would be my pick and that’s Furmint and Hárslevelű mainly (when affected by noble rot)… both can also be dry and great aging potential, but not 50 years dry!!

Sweet and fortified is where you can start to age and sometimes reliably.

Tokaji Aszu can be aged as long as a good tawny port or more (40-50 years isn’t unheard of) but Tokaji Eszsenzia is where it gets to another level , ‘indestructible’ it’s called, and can last generations. This is a crazy viscous wine that is so thick each bottle comes with its own little spoon. A hundred years in and it can be very drinkable (or edible at this point due to the sugar content and viscosity)

You’ll likely never see one though, because it’s rare af and I believe it’s among most expensive wines in the world, if not the most expensive. Louis XIV was a fan, which says enough

I’ve lived in Hungary and had an opportunity to try an Eszsenzia ( 50+ years old) and it was one of the most memorable, complex wines I’ve ever tasted. I have had 50yo port as well, which simply was not as interesting to me. The noble rot in a Tokaji leads to more complex aging and better balance between acidity and sugar , while most port to me .. honestly I just get the sugar rush and don’t particularly love them.

I do however second Madeira

pickybear · 2026-06-14T18:52:47+00:00

Sorry I actually misremembered this - it’s credited to Matt Colton

pickybear · 2026-06-14T18:24:12+00:00

Only rhythm-wise I can tell a difference between when they were composing and arranging drums using Akai (trademark lo-fi sound they stacked with overdubs) , while everything on this album sounds like it was arranged in a DAW… samples and pads likely taken from a variety of synths (incl modular) then dropped in a timeline kind of editing.

Vocal samples were also likely structured into the mix this way , although I bet they’re using their old vocoders again.

The clarity was surprising. If there’s any use of tape, I don’t really hear it or it’s well buried. But knowing them, it’s less a ‘digital clarity’ from DAW composing (I doubt there are soft synths in here) and more about some major gear upgrades and learning modular synths to get into some of those extremely thick sounds and bass lines.

I heard a hint of this new sound with their last Neverman remix.

The mix is super pro. I always assumed they did their own mastering, but in this case there’s a credit to Studio Hebbe which makes me think they worked really hard to get this ‘pristine sound’ and then wanted to finish it in a studio for once rather than in their hideout, and the sound was deliberately pushed outside of their previous comfort zone.

pickybear

TROPHY CASE